The movie roles Bruce Willis “got sick” of being offered
If there were ever an actor to stand up and represent the brilliance of action movie cinema, then Bruce Willis would be a solid contender. Sure, the American cinema icon would likely face stiff competition from the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, but considering his impressive filmography, Willis still stands a chance.
After coming through into the public’s eye in the comedy drama series Moonlighting, Willis set about establishing himself as a notable action star and amongst his choice credits are the likes of Pulp Fiction, 12 Monkeys, The Fifth Element, Armageddon, Unbreakable, Sin City and The Expendables, which all toy with the action genre in a myriad of ways.
However, one cannot think of Willis and not immediately conjure up the image of him playing John McClane in the many Die Hard movies. Beginning with the 1988 original, based on Roderick Thorp’s 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever, Willis’ character was faced with the challenge of rescuing a series of hostages in an LA skyscraper from the malice of terrorist Hans Gruber, played by Alan Rickman.
Two years later, McClane was at it again, only in the sequel, also taking place on Christmas Eve, he must foil a terrorist attempt taking place in Washington Dulles International Airport. Over the following years, a further three Die Hard movies arrived, although they admitted came on screen in a range of levels of quality.
In fact, even Willis had felt by the time the mid-2000s swung around that the Die Hard franchise had been overdone, as well as the Lethal Weapon action film series starring Mel Gibson that birthed four films in total. Speaking with the BBC about the impact of both franchises, Willis noted, “That’s what these films are, and when I did the first Die Hard and Mel Gibson did the first Lethal Weapon, we both set templates for the modern version of good guys versus bad guys.”
However, Willis went on to express his annoyance with him playing McClane so much as Gibson playing his character, LAPD detective Martin Riggs, all too often. “Over 15 – 20 years that kind of got done so much – I did three of them, and Mel Gibson did four – it just got bastardised,” Willis said. “They ran so many by me that I said ‘no’ to, and other people turned into films.”
He added, “It was Die Hard on a plane, Die Hard at the White House, Die Hard at a Delicatessen, Die Hardeverywhere! I just got sick of it. I got sick of running down a street with a gun in my hand going, ‘NOOOO!'” Interestingly, Willis was making his comments while promoting the 2005 action thriller movie Hostage, so it’s clear he didn’t really mind making action films in sum.
However, what is clear is that the success of the original Die Hard left Willis in a position of constantly having to return to his John McClane character, with movie producers always in his ear about how they could make yet another Die Hard movie. The series was brought to an end in 2013 with John Moore’s A Good Day to Die Hard, although the critical reception of the film was incredibly poor. Willis was absolutely right that Die Hard and Lethal Weapon were “bastardised”, and thankfully, they both seem to be dead in the water. At least for now…
